The Finished Music Video and Evaluation

This is the link to our music video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb9AzAM0cKM

For our evaluation we decided to use Prezi, an online presentation site, the link for this is below:

http://prezi.com/b_fd0orqhyyq/my-a2-media-evaluation/

Album Cover

Research

We where required to make a album cover for the CD and we have also chosen to display this image on the magazine advertisement. below is research into album covers and the production of our final product:

Amy Winehouse's album shows a quite natural photograph of her looking toward the ground instead of the camera with what appears to be the sea in the background. The photograph shows her famous 'beehive' hairstyle and thick pointed eyemakeup effect, with this the audience can easily identify with whose album it is.This is quite a serene looking album cover which relates to the circumstances surrounding the albums release as it was released only a few months after her death with unreleased material that she was working on. The text is plain and in block capitals so that it is easy to see and read against the pail background

One of the most popular album cover pictures is of the albums artist and their typical stereotype. Jessie J for example, her album cover is of her wearing dark colours (makeup, nail varnish, clothing) with her dark hair falling into her eyes. The photograph of her is very similar to how she is presented in the majority of her music videos such as "Do It Like A Dude" and "Price Tag". This allows the audience to easily recognise that the album is hers. The white background and her pale skin create a huge contrast between the colours which allows the gold title to stand out massively.

 Another popular effect is having the album in black and white with selected parts in colour. Example, David Guetta and Adele's albums all use this effect.



Both David Guetta and Adele's album both have both of their faces in black and white with only parts of the writing being in colour. David Guetta's album title alternates between pink and white and is in a completely different font to the artists name which makes it more distinguishable. By using pink, it also helps to make the album have connotations of fun, love and girls even though the photograph is of just him with a neutral expression. Adele's "21" album is very similar to her other album "19" with it being of her face. Her album "19" only shows part of her face whereas "21" shows the whole of her face along with her arm. It has a feel of classic beauty with her eyes closed and the focus being on her features which as highlighted through the contrast of black and white. The writing is in a thin font in white and then changing to green subtly, this and the photograph of her, create an image of subtlety in contrast to David Guetta's album where the album's writing creates a more bold feeling.

Example's album has the artists name surrounded by bright yellow which would make it stand out and easy to recognise. The rest of the album cover relates to the album name "Playing In The Shadows" as his face is split into two as though a shadow has been cast upon him. The background also switches from black to white, the reverse effect that is on his face. This creates two lots of shadows with one being on his face on the right hand side and the other being in the background on the left hand side.











Through this analysis we noted several conventions that are commonly used on album covers:

    The main photograph is of the album's artist. This is because audiences make the link between the name(s) and face(s) of the artist(s).

    The name of the artist and the album is displayed so that people know who's album they are buying and which one is it. Because "Bounce" was release as a single, the albums' title is the title of the featuring song.

    There is usually a strong contrast between the background and the main photograph (which is shown especially in Jessie J's album).

    The writing must stand out against the background through different/unique fonts as well as colours.

Planning

Because i am the only main character in our music video, we decided to have just me  on the album cover. We have played around with different shots of me varying from a close up to an extreme close up. I am going to be wearing the leopard print outfit which i am seen in leaving the house and at the party. We wanted to include some other elements that were in the music video such as bubbles and streamers to link the two. Below is the plan of the layout and what we want to include:





We wanted to try to include all of these conventions into the album cover by having the main character on the front. I  am wearing the same outfit as in the music video so that it is easy to relate the music video to the album cover. I made the background quite dark to create a big contrast between the foreground and the background. The photograph and the writing on the album cover are both quite bright in comparison to the background making them stand out. The writing on the album cover consists of the artists, "Calvin Harris Ft. Kelis",  as well as the album title "Bounce". Amber put all of the text in white as it creates that contrast but doesn't take to much attention from the photograph. We decided not to use different colours as the simplicity of the white doesn't make it overpowering. We played around with a lot of fonts before deciding on a simple font for the Artists and varying fonts for the Title. We used varying fonts for "Bounce" as the song and music video are all about having fun and the music video we created is disorganised and messy. These are the fonts that as a teenager (the target audience), we can confidently say would find most appealing and fun, being of this age group ourselves. The word "Bounce" means moving around and so the majority of the fonts have different sized letters and differ in some way.



Below is the finished product as snap shots of several stayed we went through during production:

Our finished product

This is the original image used







This is the photo edited without any of the text etc. on it. It is a big change from the original. The rest of the people in the photograph have been cut out and the background has been changed to a dark blue to create a contrast. We then edited the face, getting rid of the red-eye and bringing out the blue. The image was made brighter and "boost" was applied to the colours making it stand out more. Amber also darkened and lengthened my eyelashes and hair so that it looked more like it does in our music video.



This is one of the designs that we played around with before coming up with the final design. Amber messed around adding different effects and added on the stars and hearts that we later decided to used in the rest of the DigiPak. This is because it would allow it to flow and blend effectively, however we thought it looked too childish for an album cover.